The International NGO Coalition for a worldwide ban on female genital mutilation has been campaigning since 2010 for the United Nations General Assembly to adopt a Resolution banning the practice. Following the decision by the 56th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in March 2012 recommending that the General Assembly consider the issue of female genital mutilation at its 67th session later this year, the African Group at the UN is currently spearheading the effort to draft a Resolution.

In support of the African Group’s effort, the Ban FGM Coalition has launched an appeal to the United Nations for a Resolution that explicitly bans female genital mutilation worldwide, and calling on all States to adopt and implement legislation to ban female genital mutilation and to take all necessary legislative, political and operational measures aimed at ending the practice.

Within the past ten days, Prominent political personalities around the world, among whom Laurent Fabius, French Minister of Forieng Affairs, Catherine Ashton, EU’s High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission, Clemence Traore Some, Minister of Social Affairs and National Solidarity (Burkina Faso), Patricia Espinosa, Secretary of Foreign Affairs (Mexico), and Paul Magnette, Minister of Public Enterprises, Science Policy and Development Cooperation (Belgium), have expressed their support to the International Appeal launched by the Ban FGM Coalition, calling upon the United Nations General Assembly to adopt a Worldwide Ban on female genital mutilation in 2012.

First prominent signatories of the Appeal included Chantal Compaoré, First Lady of Burkina Faso, Goodwill Ambassador of the Inter-African Committee, Coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban FGM Worldwide; Raymonde Coffie Goudou, Minister of Family, Women and Childhood, Ivory Coast; Sihem Badi, Minister of Women and Family Affairs, Tunisia; Maikibi Kadidiatou Dandobi, Minister of Population, Women's Promotion and Child Protection, Niger; Olivia Amedjogbe-Kouevi, Minister for the Advancement of Women, Togo; Elio Di Rupo, Prime Minister, Belgium; Joëlle Milquet, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Belgium; Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission and EU Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship; Cecilia Malmström,EU Commissioner for Home Affairs.